Gates calls for better PC security

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates issued a call in San Jose Tuesday for better and simpler approaches to making computers more secure in the face of increased dangers.

Microsoft has long come under fire for being too easy a target for criminal hackers, and Gates acknowledged that his company bears a large responsibility in this area. But he also said the entire computing industry needs to get together to build a "trust ecosystem."

"It's a very ambitious goal, but I think it can be achieved," Gates said in his keynote address at the RSA Conference, a major gathering of computer security experts that has brought 14,000 people and 275 companies to the San Jose Convention Center.

His speech came on the heels of Microsoft's announcement last week that it will start selling a consumer security product, Windows OneCare Live, for $49.95 starting in June.

Gates' message met with both enthusiasm and skepticism. Tom Noonan, chief executive of Internet Security Systems of Atlanta, who will deliver a keynote address at RSA on Thursday, said Microsoft is selling a separate security product "instead of fixing vulnerabilities they created in the first place."

Noonan counted Microsoft among other big tech companies that are "guilty parties" and "charlatans" for causing vulnerabilities and then, when the market for security appears hot, try to cash in on it.

Similarly, Sun Microsystems' Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy -- a longtime Microsoft critic -- followed Gates on the RSA stage with a speech that in part echoed Gates' call for industry solutions, but also blasted Microsoft for causing many of today's security problems. He said because Microsoft's Windows operating system holds a near monopoly on PC desktops, "one virus can knock out the entire government. There's not enough genetic diversity on the desktop."

McNealy said the solution lies in open-source software systems, like Linux or products that his company sells.

In an interview after the speeches, Amy Roberts, director of Microsoft's Security, Business and Technology unit, defended the company against the charges. "Since Bill issued his 'trustworthy computing' memo and called the company to task" four years ago, she said, "the company has done a tremendous amount to focus on security as job one. ... Microsoft has a great track record in the past several years of focusing on security with better tools, better guidance, and working with law enforcement around the world to bring hackers to justice."

The next version of Microsoft's operating system, Vista, is due for release late this year, and it will include many new security features. One unveiled by Gates on Tuesday is "InfoCard," a technology that will support smart cards -- essentially wallet-size cards embedded with a thin computer chip that Gates said will represent an improvement over the plethora of passwords people have to remember today.

"Microsoft saw a huge security weakness, and of all the available technologies, the smart card is the best," said Damon Turnbull, marketing director for Axalto, an Austin, Texas, company that makes smart cards. Marvin Tansley, a vice president of product management for Axalto, said smart cards are already widely used in Europe, Canada and Mexico, and will become commonplace in the United States.